After seeing my father in law die this way I find this story rather disturbing and upsetting. While I agree that if the patient wants to be put on this pathway it should be granted but I see no argument for doctors deciding when to remove food and fluids from a terminally ill patient.

When I saw my father in law, who was terminally ill, heavily sedated I assumed that is was purely for pain relief. However, I started to get concerned when I noticed that he was never offered, tea, water or food. At one point he came round from the sedatives and I took the opportunity to make him a cup of tea and offer him some food. The poor bloke was desperate for a drink and I spoon fed him food that one of the care assistants brought for me. While I did this I noticed the care assistant being disciplined by a senior nurse. The nurse came over and told me that he was NIL by mouth....which I questioned and asked why but was never given a reason.

Sadly within minutes the nurse administered another does of sedatives and that was the last time I spoke to him. He lasted another 2 weeks without food and water but all the time I trusted those caring for him, I assumed he was in some sort of coma but now I know why they did it.

I know it would not have changed the outcome but I still feel that he would have wanted to at least eat and drink until he was unable to. Although he was not my father I feel absolutely terrible that I let someone be starved to death.

Daily Mail report on 60,000 people being put on the dying pathway

I never believe what the newspapers say, which is why half the time i dont read them, and today proved that. There was a report about 60,000 people being put on the dying pathway, also known as the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP). For those not in the know, it is a document that nurses and doctors use when the patient in a hospice / hospital are deemed to be very poorly, and have not got long to live.

In real terms, and as a hospice nurse, all it means is that we are condensing down all the care plans we have to write, into one document. If we put someone on the LCP, it is after families have been spoken too, where we have told them, that their loved one is less well, and time is short. We dont always tell them we are putting the patient on the LCP, since in real terms, it means nothing. The care, the treatment, doesnt change. It is just a document for us, that also allows future nurses looking at the care notes, to be able to access certain information quicker, and acts as a guide, that this particular patient will need more observation than others.

If people go on it, certainly from a hospice perspective, treatment such as infusions, further radiotherapy etc, will have been discussed on initial contact to the ward. So like i say the LCP doesnt change anything.

Well i just thought i would write this here, since i am not on any other websites, Facebook etc, but for those who saw that headline today, dont be afraid, that we are condoning people to death. Its never that straight forward. But for those who want to know more, feel free to email me here.

So...

"If we put someone on the LCP,
it is after families have been spoken too, where we have told them, that their
loved one is less well, and time is short."

"We dont always tell them we are putting the patient on the LCP, since in
real terms,...it means nothing."

I see, you speak to them, but you don't always tell them...

Because, "in real terms, it means nothing..."

"It doesnt change anything."

This is a Professional LCP Clinician.

Well, it certainly meant something to
richard978...

And it certainly meant something to his father-in-law!

The
national audit of the Liverpool Care Pathway which revealed these
devastating facts and figures was conducted by the Marie Curie Palliative Care
Institute in Liverpool and the RoyalCollege of Physicians.

It found that in 44 per cent of cases when conscious patients
were placed on the pathway, there was no record that the decision had been
discussed with them.

Mr. Hunt, 44% is rather more than 'one or two cases'.
Attempting to put a spin and a shine on these catastrophic figures is
dismissive and insulting. One third of families did not receive a leaflet to
explain what was being done to their loved one.

But this doesn't matter...

Because, "in real terms, it means nothing..."

"It doesnt change anything."

This has only become public knowledge through the efforts of a
national newspaper - The Daily Mail.

It is this newspaper which Professional LCP Clinicians
disparagingly refer to as The Daily Fail!

With their senseless banter, these
'professionals' behave and act as though they belong in the school playground.
Alas, they are involved in making and taking life and death decisions
concerning our loved ones!

So, in this Brave New 21st
century, in the U.K., it appears that National Health Service Apparatchiks
are permitted to instigate a medical protocol and instruct their
functionaries to withdraw sustenance and medicine from patients - whom they
have themselves selected - without the patient's knowledge, the patient’s family,
or even that of the GP...

Although, as the GP 'Find your 1%
campaign' is rolled out and Death Lists are compiled, this process will involve
and may well be at the behest of the GP!

O whither is our familiar 'Family
Doctor' gone...?

No need for mum or dad or nan to be informed. Everything is under control. They
are in capable hands.

About Me

I am distraught and I despair that these events have befallen this family. The picture is of me and my lovely mum, murdered on the NHS (National-socialist Health Service). Murdered. Is that too strong a word? Her life was taken without her permission. By omission and by commission, actions taken and not taken conspired to end her life. She was kept in ignorance of what was proceeding before her very eyes, as were we. Was she, then, not murdered?